Interviews

Guus Smit: 'I am now part of an organisation of 450 scientists working together on the brain'





Annemieke Rozemuller: 'For many diseases we still don’t know the cause; those ones I like the most.'

Chris Polman: 'Progress is made by solving small parts of the puzzle, which you have to do many times.'

Jan Smit: 'Reputations of research groups are very important in the world of biobanking.'

Heidi de Wit: 'Electron microscopy opens a world you cannot see in any other way.'

Eco de Geus: 'We want to find ways to visualise the psychological events that happen inside the brain, without harming our test subjects.'





Dorret Boomsma: ‘Our phenotype is determined by three factors: genetics, epigenetics and environment. Twin research can reveal the equilibrium between these three.’

Adriaan Lammertsma: ‘In neuroscientific PET research we have many more possibilities to develop different tracers that can be used for imaging studies than in other lines of research.'

Inge Schadee: ‘If needed, I will postpone my retirement to take part in the opening of the new electron microscopy facility.'

Christine Dijkstra: ‘Drug targeting to the central nervous system is relevant for other researchers as well. We’re happy to share our extensive models.’ 

Marloes Groot: 'It would be great to have more techniques enabling us to look directly into the patient’s head.’





Danielle Posthuma: ‘We are strong in a number of research fields in biology, mathematics and genetics. Integration should be our strength.’

Saskia van der Vies: 'The Neuroscience Campus is like a multidisciplinary conference with your own neighbours.'

Mathisca de Gunst: ‘In neurosciences, there are things you simply cannot investigate experimentally. In those cases, modelling can be a solution.’

Marjo van der Knaap: 'I am moved by the beauty of things: paintings, sculptures, and certainly the detailed images of the brain that we were able to make with magnetic resonance imaging.’
‘I like to know a lot, to analyse the problem. The localisation of neurological diseases is a puzzle I like to solve.’

Peter Heutink: 'I believe that if you bring scientists together physically, there will grow mutual understanding for the respective fields of interest. Understanding leads to collaboration, and promising projects will be mushrooming.'





Philip Scheltens: 'It is my strong belief that many great ideas on therapeutic issues are perceived when doctors and scientists are brought together.'





Ton Schoffelmeer: 'Addicted people suffer from a brain disease and it is possible to develop medicines to successfully treat those that are motivated to stop using drugs.'

Witte Hoogendijk: ' If we can find biomarkers for mental disorders that are reliable and efficient, they will find the way to the clinic.'

Dick Veltman: 'Before we can use these techniques as a diagnostic tool, we need to further improve their sensitivity and specificity. But we already know that certain abnormalities in functional scans can predict whether a patient is going to respond to a certain antidepressant.'

Huib Mansvelder: 'Reality is you cannot have everything. But with the Neuroscience Campus, we can.'